Committee Members in a Spin!

Whilst anticipation, planning and the smooth application of your vehicle’s controls are important aspects of advanced driving, used together they can help reduce the risk of a loss of traction. But, with that in mind, would you know what to do in the event of a skid?

Ashley Behan, our Secretary, and Richard Hardesty, our Social Media Lead, thought they’d know how to recover from losing grip but decided to test this theory by attending a skid avoidance course with the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership.

The course is conducted on an open section at RAF Scampton, where on arrival Ashely and Richard were met by the course instructor. They were both made to feel very welcome and were quick to receive a hot drink.

Taking around 3 hours, the course includes a combination of an informative classroom-based presentation, interjected with practical driving segments in specially adapted Citroen C4’s. The great thing about this is that at the point that the presentation introduces you to understeer; you then go straight out in the car to experience it. You’re then back into the classroom for the next subject, which is our case was oversteer.

The cars have an integral control system which is operated by the instructor. This enables him to set the car up for the different scenarios mentioned above. When you first go out he leaves you to deal with the loss off grip, often part way through a corner, in the best way you see fit. This mainly relies on previous experience with a big dollop of natural reaction. It’s fair to say that the first attempt at dealing with oversteer was, err…. Interesting!

The instructor quickly assesses how you react and provides constructive feedback in a detailed, but friendly way. He then gives you a selection of hints and tips before you have another go. Needless to say, it’s much better second time round.

After a combination of two or three classroom to car sessions, it was back out in the car to apply this to some (imaginary) real life scenarios; where anything can happen at any time.

The course proved that even a pair of advanced drivers could learn a thing or two about controlling a skid. Now of course, the art of dealing with this is to drive in such a way that prevents the skid in the first place – but do you know where that next patch of oil is part way round that next bend?

If you’re not certain where the next loss of traction may be, the course comes highly recommended and at just £49 its affordable too! More details can be found at https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/lincolnshire-road-safety-partnership/road-safety-courses 

Richard Hardesty
National Observer & Social Media Lead